This book garnered multiple awards when first published, including the National Book Award's longlist. It's a breathtaking true story of how a young birdwatcher finds himself in an epic quest for an extremely rare bird. After Jonathan C. Slaght snapped a photo of a bird that looked like a small bear with feathers, he learned it was a Blakiston's fish owl. This sighting led to a five-year journey with other scientists and conservationists, to remote forests of eastern Russia, searching for this magnificent owl with the goal of conservation.